Yes of course. If I were them I’d find people locally, meet them in person and show them the video. Certainly not send them a copy.
It’s registered in the US but the team is international.
The fact that the INovae engine is, in the words of Keith, the leading planet generation engine, is all well and good for when it comes time to license the tech, but since Battlescape isn’t going to be exploration focused, it’s not going to mean that much for the game. I’m sure it’ll wow in the Kickstarter video, though.
There are a couple of things going for Battlescape right now. One is that we’re now far enough past the Elite: Dangerous and Star Citizen funding drives. There’s going to be a big enough gap between ED & SC and Battlscape that it can, hopefully, make an impact. Another big one is that, at least from what I’ve seen, the only real competitor at the moment in terms of the type of gameplay is Star Citizen, and I think Battlscape will deliver better core gameplay than Star Citizen, for no other reason than Battlescape is more focused on combat. Star Citizen has more balls to juggle, and while I trust Chris Roberts not to drop any of them, I’ve played a good chunk of his games, and combat has never been his games’ primary strength.
I also think the round-based combat will be interesting for fans of arena-style combat games. A month-long round of Space Battlefield? I think the concept has legs, and while it’s sure to catch the attention of Elite and Star Citizen fans, I also think it’s going to appeal to an audience that those games simply won’t. It definitely will if INovae can make good on the old hopes of sustained high paced, Star Warsesque squad-based combat. The old X-Wing vs TIE Fighter crowd will take keen notice, if nothing else.
2 Likes
On one hand, I agree it’s risky.
On the other, even if they set up a focus group and get some feedback on what should be changed… how viable is it to implement that feedback? I mean at the current rate it might well push back the kickstarter another year or two 
2 Likes
Tasty new info, Kieth. Tech is ultimately something that allows a good game to be built, though. And so far it seems like you guys want the tech to be perfect in every way before moving forward (perhaps to an excessive extent, or not)… Im a bit worried about the game design itself, though. Tech is just tech, it can’t substitute for well planned game design no matter how much time you spend on it. Look at star citizen, whos tech and detail in many respects far outstrips anything inovae can produce. Full ship interiors, cockpits, detailed animations for everything, individual parts and thrusters modelled in the physics engine, which damage states that affect gameplay for each part. They already have a decent power management system (though most people havent noticed this especially because its impossible to access without knowing a seemingly random sequence of hotkeys) and ship mechanics, other than flight mechanics, are pretty solid gameplay wise. And that’s just the alpha. Competing with that will be absurdly difficult if you’re focusing just on tech, even with the advantages of seamless, massive planets, they are worthless if there’s nothing to do on them.
Im curious as to whether you or flavien are going to be doing the brunt of design work for the actual game, and to what degree you think past community discussions will influence that design.
The game design will be a team effort, no one dev will be strapped with the brunt of the design work. Past community discussions related primarily to the MMO not Battlescape. However, community involvement will be a large part of the alpha/beta phases of I:B development, that is where the feedback will be most appreciated/utilized.
1 Like
Another major difference with ED and SC’s gameplay is also the scale of the battles. We’re aiming at doing hundreds of players vs hundreds, not just a dozen.
No that isn’t true at all. A lot of things still aren’t at the acceptable level, and “acceptable” here is barely industry minimum, not just some fantasy ultimate top-level quality. I know it sounds like we’re trying to make everything perfect simply because we take so much time, but the reality of it is that we take so much time because not all of us are working full time, therefore it goes much slower than a real, funded company would take, just to achieve similar results.
Of course we particularly pay attention to the planet tech since it’s our main selling point and core differenciator, but trust me, even then, a lot of things still need work…
3 Likes
On a positive note, looks like HDR and materials is more or less resolved. Kudos to dev team.
3 Likes
What an exciting post. Still waiting patiently for the Kick-Starter.
Now, we wait.
Wow, I’d love to hear more about this. Sounds like you’ve innovated some clever netcode.
1 Like
If planets are going to be the core differentiator for Infinity Battlescape does that mean the game will have stuff like ground-based bases and defenses?
It’s not the first time I’ve heard this claim either. I’d really be interested to see those large scale battles happen, because that really would differentiate I:B from the competition.
Since they’ve failed to meet the “mid-July” target, is there a new estimate?
This project appears to be in a state of slow and steady evaporation, like many other Kickstarter hopefuls that have failed to reach their funding targets.
This project also boasts a much higher talk:action ratio than even CIG and Star Citizen. That’s a pretty impressive feat, albeit a probably undesirable one. The last 3 videos from you were about 3.5 years ago, 1 year ago, and 8 months ago. Yet, you are confident of delivering something better than SC and ED in the many ways you’ve claimed.
So is this project going to continue to be the farce of the niche Space Sim community, alongside X Rebirth, except one that’s near a decade in the making? Or is there any reason to think there’s any substance to all their hopes and dreams and all their talk?
Well, the biggest reason to believe it’ll happen would have to be how much time and effort people are willing to spend saying it wont happen. No such thing as bad publicity.
Beyond that, I’m pretty sure the developers have never actually said what they were making was better than any other space game, let alone a recent one. Just bigger. By about 9 orders of magnitude for the amount of space, and 1-2 orders for the amount of players that can fit in the same part of that space as you.
Well somebody’s grumpy today.
I’ve made my peace with Infinity: The Quest for Earth not coming any time soon about 3 years ago and promptly stopped regularly checking the old forum.
And I’m telling you right now that Infinity MMO is also not coming any time soon. The kickstarter which is about to hit will be for Infinity: Battlescape. The absolute earliest you can expect the Infinity MMO to show up is 5 years from now. So it might be wise for you to forget about the game for 5 years and then come back and check on it.
That’s fair enough. I’ve known of this project for less than two years. I don’t share the same approach and mindset to those that have known this for many more years than that.
Right now, some of you think you’d be willing to check back in 5 years.
For me, I know I wouldn’t bother by then. The industry isn’t static, and would have evolved and progressed too much in that much time for this project to ever catch up. By the time NMS, ED and eventually (if) SC feature full planets, this project’s endeavours would be outdated and obsolete. Until then, though, I’d probably still be willing to check back here whenever progress is shown, if ever.
We understand your frustration @dee however I assure you we are making more progress now than at anytime before in the history of the project. Our team has grown to 9 people, including 3 programmers, and multiple people on the project quit their jobs (when they can) to focus full-time on the project. The simple fact of the matter is we’re building brand new tech with very high visual fidelity and that’s extremely difficult. Our planetary tech is the source of the vast majority of our delays and since it’s our core differentiator we can’t really ship until it’s ready.
While the concerns you raise are valid all of them, including your statements regarding E:D, NMS, SC, and pace of the industry, have been addressed at earlier points in the discussion on this very thread. Please read this thread in its entirety and if you have any more concerns I’d be happy to hear them.
hahahaha star citizen? It doesn’t exist, no more than Infinity battlescape does right now. I:B isn’t going to be the same thing as star citizen.
Then please tell me, why are you still prying on this forum ?
If you think I:B is not to be seen anywhere in the future, move on !
.
As for Star citizen … let’s say I’m mostly amazed at what they can get (squeeze ?) from community with some well-laid promises and marketing promotions.
For the moment, they’re more real than I:B because of their funding … but as soon as I:B’s kickstarter is coming out with the demo, that is going to tip the scales.
This probably sounds weird to some, and maybe so, but to have a Kickstarter date towards a calendars year-end could give I:B an atmosphere to those outside this site of seeming old and dated by next mid-year. I personally foresee the best time for a date of the Kickstarter to be in early '15. In my view, I’ve always believed it’s better to start out fresh on a new year regardless of the situation in life. Then again, maybe it’s because my feelings are a bit abnormal when it comes to calculating probabilities of success.